What are carbon offsets?
Carbon offsets represent investments that reduce carbon dioxide emissions. Carbon offsets typically include investments in renewable energy, energy efficiency and reforestation projects. As more and more people become concerned about global warming and seek to reduce their personal impact on the global climate, carbon offsets provide an important tool.
Carbon offsets are a way to reduce your environmental impact and carbon footprint by purchasing what is essentially a donation for a specific purpose — to offset the impact from the greenhouse gases you produce every day. Because carbon dioxide is measured in metric tons, one carbon offset is representative of one metric ton of greenhouse gases. These offsets are a great way to encourage “green” living and sustainability, and emphasize the fact that while every individual is responsible for climate change, every individual can make a difference. Your carbon footprint is the amount of greenhouse gases you produce every day. These might come from an individual, a family, a business, even a nation. The greenhouse gases might come from driving a vehicle, running the heat in your home, flying on a plane, using electricity and water — nearly every activity produces some form of greenhouse gas, whether directly or indirectly. There are carbon calculators online to help you figure out an app
While most Americans are aware that we increase carbon dioxide in the atmosphere by burning fossil fuel to drive our cars and heat our homes, we tend to think less about the greenhouse impacts of other daily activities. Says Tim Considine, professor of natural resources at Penn State, we shouldn’t forget that half of the electricity we use for everything from toasting our morning bagels to running our computers is generated by coal-fired power plants. Carbon emissions are considered to be major offenders in the global warming crisis, a fact that has spurred researchers in academia and industry to seek cleaner coal technologies. (For instance, Penn State and Chevron recently formed a strategic alliance to explore the possibilities.) Cleaner-burning coal and natural gas are poised to become a much bigger part of the energy picture, says Considine, who believes that despite the promise in renewable energy harvested by solar panels and wind turbines, we are still “a long way off” from actu
Well, suppose that your activities contributed to the release of too much carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, perhaps by excessive reliance on personal travel by air or automobile. However, you aren’t able to reduce this travel, but you still want to plant trees to compensate for your emissions. This would create a carbon offset. Similarly, if you had a company and wanted to compensate for your emissions, you might create an offset by implementing energy conservation practices or by developing renewable energy sources. Another method of compensating for excessive pollution is by purchasing or trading emission credits. Government entities set a limit on the amount of pollution companies are allowed to discharge into the atmosphere, and the companies have a given amount of emission credits. Let’s say that your company may be unable to stay under that cap. You would then have the option of purchasing credits from a company that is able to keep their emissions below the cap and therefore h
